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Matching Linen Jacket With Different Fabric Trousers - Match Linen With Cotton - Wool
- Synthetics
Hi! I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style. Today, I'm going to be answering
a question, "Can you match a linen jacket with trousers of a different material?"
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right down there, so let's jump right into this question.
A gentleman's asking, "Antonio, I love reading your style guide," which hopefully you know
I've got an awesome style guide over at the website, atailoredsuit.com. "I have a question
regarding a linen sports coat. Basically, I purchased it and I'm trying to match it
with trousers, so do I have to wear it with linen pants or can I wear a pair of khakis
with it or any type of cotton dress pants? Also, can I wear a cotton dress shirt underneath
or should I wear a linen shirt with it? Sincerely, Michael."
Okay, Michael, there is no rule that you have to wear the same type of fabrics altogether.
So if you have a linen jacket, you're not limited to linen shirts or linen trousers.
You can match pretty much any other type of fabric, and I like that look. It adds a bit
of texture. Linen's a very casual fabric and the reason being is it uses usually a thicker
weave when you get down to the yarns that are used to make the fabric. They're usually
a bit larger, not as fine as you'll see in really high-end cottons.
Silk, one of the reasons silk has its sheen is not only the weave, but the fineness of
the yarn used to weave it. Because it comes from a rougher plant material, you're using
larger yarns. And therefore, you get this basically thicker-looking weave that's very
prone to wrinkle. So because of that, linen is considered casual, but you can mix linen
with cotton. You can mix it with wool. You can mix it with synthetics. You can mix it
with pretty much any other type of material used to make men's clothing. Let's talk about
a few of those options.
Linen, typically I'm thinking of something hot weather, so I'm going to be sticking with
that realm. Now, a great option, probably one of the easiest for most men to match almost
any type of linen jacket is with a type of blue jean, so denim, basically going with
a high-quality denim. You can go something with a darker linen jacket that's going to
look great going out at night perhaps in New York City or Chicago. Match it with a lighter
colored denim jacket and that same look has a bit more contrast and is more geared towards
day wear.
Now, the problem with jeans or any type of denim is that usually it's got a heavier weight.
It's not as breathable. There are lightweight denims out there that are made specifically
for the summer and especially in a lighter color with perhaps a lighter colored jacket
if you don't have really strong contrasting features. It sounds like a great combination.
I have to actually see it to be able to tell you.
Another option, chinos or khakis. "Chinos, khakis, what's the difference?" I'm not going
to go down that path too much, but basically chinos are less formal; khakis are what you
typically see guys try to wear at work made with usually a twill weave, less room, breathable.
Let's focus on chinos because those are made with a lighter weave and typically, those
can be rolled up at the bottom. I think they're a great summer wear especially if you get
a good fit. You can roll up the bottom that allow air movement and allow them to vent
a bit, and you can wear those with topsiders or any type of shoe that you can wear, in
a sense, sockless or look at a saddle shoe as well. That right there would go great with
a linen jacket, perhaps throw a cotton button-up shirt with that, white or a lighter color.
That will give you a very airy, very nice feel.
Let's talk about tropical weight wools. This is going to be dressier than any type of chino
or khaki. Tropical weight wool is typically what you see with a suit, although they're
going to be lighter weight. Most suit fabrics we're talking about like this one right here,
this is actually a flannel, so it's not a great example, but this is like 13 to 14-ounce
weight right there. Tropical weights are going to be half of this, so around 7 ounces.
The great part about tropical wools is because they're lightweight, they're really loose,
a very nice drape, is they just glide along the skin and they just feel cooler even though
they don't always have as much breathability simply because that they're lightweight. They're
just going to allow you to -- and wool does a great job not only in cold weather, but
also hot weather. A lot of people don't realize that, but wool will help keep you cool in
hot weather as well.
Synthetics, something that most guys -- and for a good reason -- stay away from, but there
are some good ones out there and you need to know what to look for. I always like to
look at the weave of the synthetic and look at the brand that it's coming from. I just
found a great pair of synthetic trousers. It was in Austin, Texas. I needed a pair of
lightweight trousers. I went to, I think it was Macy's, and because I knew exactly what
size to look at, I had a tape measure with me -- actually, I only had it because I asked
the sales clerk for that tape measure, so that's a quick tip there, always ask for it.
I knew what my size was, grabbed this pair of Perry Ellis. It had supposedly a matching
jacket with that. I didn’t need the jacket. I just wanted those trousers. I measured,
they looked great. I took them into the fitting room. Things fit perfectly, bottom, right
there, and these trousers were awesome. They were 100% synthetic, but I looked at the weave.
I felt how they felt on me in the fitting room and I knew I could pull these off. It
didn’t matter that it was going to be 95 degrees and humid outside. These things were
going to work great. That brought up a trick to keep trousers cooler in the summer. Again,
we're talking about linen. Make sure they're brought up a little bit so you, again, get
a little bit of air movement down around the bottom of your leg.
So that hopefully answers your question about what type of fabrics you can wear with linen
jackets. And whenever you're out shopping, you may find a linen jacket that comes with
a matching pair of linen trousers. That's a linen suit. The definition of a suit is
a jacket and trousers that are made from the same material, so technically there are denim
suits out there and polyester suits, but a linen suit is perfectly fine. You may actually
find it's not too much -- oftentimes, they'll discount it when you buy them together versus
if you buy them separate, so the advantage there is you're going to get two discounted
pieces of clothing that you can actually wear as separates.
Linen is a bit more resistant than wool to fading. A lot of times, I'll tell someone
when they only own one suit that they don't want to wear them as separates especially
if you've only got one pair of trousers and one jacket because you never want to have
an orphan jacket. That's just not the way you want to go, but if you're getting a linen
suit, you probably already own a business suit, if not a few other suits, so this is
a case where you can actually wear those separates. Someone can send me the question, "How do
I match my linen trousers?" Linen trousers are really nice. Again, the thing with linen,
wrinkles, but if you don't mind putting up with that, it's a great summer wear.
Hopefully I answered the question. If you guys have anymore questions, you know where
to go, mensstyleqa.com. I love the YouTube comments down below. You guys know I love
talking with you down there, but it's really hard to track all that. So if you've got a
serious question and you want me to make a video of it, go to mensstyleqa.com, ask it.
We pretty much answer all the questions there. I will try to make a video of what I think
are some of the best, most commonly asked questions that get the most activity.
Okay. I will see you guys in the next video. Bye-bye.